Continued from Trouble Knows Where to Knock

The initial tests the doctors had run the night before had all come back negative and so Sesha's illness had been put down to exhaustion, which wasn't quite a first for the man; he did tend to work to hard but it had been some time since anything this serious had happened. Though he hated spending time in any sort of hospital he'd taken the advice and spent the night, eventually having sent Domerin back to their apartment so he could actually get some rest. Sesha had slept lightly but no further trouble had come in the night and he'd woken up around his normal time, eaten something small, and spent a short time reading a rather trashy romance novel when no other reading material could be produced.

It was clear by Domerin's haggard look when he arrived the next morning to check on his mate's progress that he hadn't slept very well. There were dark marks under his eyes and his hair was in even more of a disarray than usual. He had felt Sesha's absence in their bed quite keenly and what little sleep he had managed to snatch from the night had been troubled by nightmares of what this unexpected sickness might mean. He nodded seriously while he spoke to the doctor and asked his few questions before he made his way to Sesha's side. He could be satisfied with the diagnosis - it wasn't the first time he'd seen this happen. He just resolved to keep a better eye on his mate when things got a bit exciting, though he was always careful not to make it seem that he was coddling him. But for the moment, the only thing that was going to ease his anxiety was taking Sesha home and having a quiet few days without another relapse of such an aliment.

Despite his ragged appearance, Domerin rustled up a smile for his mate and it was as kind and warm as always it was when it was turned in his direction. "Hey there beautiful, how are you feeling this morning? Robin and I missed you last night." He doubted his daughter had slept any better than he had.

Sesha looked tired himself but he seemed to be holding up quite well. He'd spent more than enough of his share of time in hospitals and refused to mope around, preferring to make a point of getting out when he felt up to it. He still felt a little slow but was ready to go home by the time Domerin arrived. He managed a smile of his own and his spirits rose at the sight of his partner. "Better." He was quite sure, however, that he looked horrific. "I'm sorry I worried you both."

Domerin waved a hand. Sesha knew him well enough by now to know that he held no blame to the other man for these sorts of situations when they cropped up, even if it was a case of him having worked himself into exhaustion. They all tended to forget that the man was frail, after all; he did hide it quite well. "I won't have you apologizing for this - again. Don't worry about it. Shit happens." He shrugged and smiled again. "Besides, it's all over now. Time to go home and relax. I'm sure Robin is going to insist on bringing you breakfast, lunch, and dinner wherever you decide to lounge." Domerin's expression changed to one that was half stern and half teasing. "And don't think that you'll be catching up on some of that work you've been leaving for a rainy day because I already hid your laptop!"

He still felt bad about it all, though like Domerin it was hard to get him to lie still for very long despite the fact that he tended to have more patience. It was at least lucky that these sorts of things were few and far between and he was glad that he didn't have any jobs coming up in the immediate future that would need canceling. "I'm sure this time I won't begrudge her wanting to bring me things." He didn't feel much like moving around, with the lethargy in him now. "Now Domerin, that's going a little to far!" It was a weak protest though, he'd be just as happy right now with a book or a quiet movie. "Here, help me get up so I can change." He certainly wasn't going to walk the halls in hospital robes.

Domerin never minded lending his strength to Sesha when the other man was in need of it, and the moment he asked he had Domerin's arm and he patiently waited while Sesha got changed, supporting the man when he needed it, though not offering any help that was unasked for. Domerin knew that, like himself, Sesha had a stubborn pride in doing things for himself, even when he was not at his best, and Domerin would never have stolen that dignity from him, just as he knew Sesha did his best to allow him to have it when their positions were reversed. "Too far nothing." He said with a snort. "You still don't understand the meaning of relaxation. At least read something for fun for once!"

Sesha tested the waters a bit with Domerin's help but then insisted on getting himself in his own clothes, not seeming to have any trouble standing and moving about, though he was a bit slow at it and once or twice he could be heard suppressing a little cough. "I enjoy working." Though it was true he had some trouble with relaxation. It normally took Domerin dragging him away from his laptop to get him to relax. "You might have to make a supply run then, I think the only thing we have in the house right now is Robin's young adult books and I'd rather not read about sparkly vampires when I'm supposed to be relaxing."

Domerin rolled his eyes. "Since when do vampires sparkle anyway?" He never much been into fantasy or horror fiction... he'd never been much one to read at all, but it was his understanding that vampires were supposed to be dark and frightening. He rather imagined the sparkles would get in the way of their horrific image. "In any case, I'll go grab whatever you want; food, reading supplies, you name it. But as long as you promise to relax. Don't make me shove a video game controller in your hand. I'll make you play one of those co-op games where you do nothing but shoot zombies for an hour. That'll numb your mind a bit."

It was Sesha's turn to roll his eyes. "You know I don't like those sorts of games." Though it wasn't for the reason most people would think. He'd tried them before, at Domerin's insistence but had been severely put off in finding that despite being a rather good shot in the real world he was pretty much crap when it came to shooting with a controller. "And I promise I'll relax. Now let's go." They would have to stop so Sesha could be signed out and there were a few more words with the doctor before they were allowed to go. He seemed to be handling it all himself, though that little cough was making itself known again. He was starting to wonder if he wasn't getting a cold or some sort of bug.

Domerin only smirked, because he knew very well why Sesha hated those games. Shooting in a game was quite a bit different than shooting in real life, but since video games were his personal hobby, Domerin had put the time and patience into getting good at it. In any case, he knew it wasn't Sesha's preferred activity for relaxation, and the threat was mostly just to make him do something he really would enjoy.

Domerin lead Sesha out of the room, insisting that the man walk on his arm, partly just to be close to him, and partly so that he would be there in case Sesha needed the support. Besides, this was the best way to let Sesha walk on his own without overtaxing himself. No one but Domerin would notice if he leaned on the other man a bit, and Domerin was adept at pretending he didn't notice... certainly he didn't mind. He allowed Sesha to handle the details, once again aware that he preferred it that way, then led him to the elevator that would take them up to their floor. "So tell me honestly," he said in a somewhat more serious tone once the doors had closed and left them with a small bit of privacy. "Do you really feel any better?" It was obvious by the look on Domerin's face, that he was still concerned, despite what the doctors had said. As Sesha well knew, Doctors were not his favorite people.

Sesha did lean on Domerin slightly as they walked. He wasn't sure how well he'd hold up and though he held his head high and his back was straight there was still the lingering feeling, like a subtle weight inside of him that slowed his step. His breathing was slightly audible by the time they reached the elevator and he leaned a bit more on Domerin after the doors had closed. "Better than passed out on the floor? Yes." That wasn't much of an answer though, and something wasn't sitting quite right with him. He covered his mouth with his free sleeve as he coughed, a somewhat unpleasant look passing across his face.

Domerin had been with Sesha for a long time now. Their relationship ran deep. There were things that they knew about each other that other people never would have been able to guess. There were ways that things passed between the two of them, somehow, subconsciously, without either of them knowing how it happened, and Domerin somehow knew that something was wrong. He could sense it somehow. He could see it in the way the other man acted. But the doctors had assured him that Sesha's blood work was clean. That there was no reason to be worried. And of course Domerin worried almost obsessively over Sesha when these incidents occurred and it wasn't too hard to chalk everything up to all being his own anxiety. He furrowed his brow slightly at Sesha's response; it was neither what he had hoped for nor a sufficient response, but he could take a hint. Even if he wasn't feeling okay at the moment, he knew that Sesha wanted to be okay... and wanted to be treated like he was. So although there was a slightly troubled look on his face, Domerin did his best to hide it behind another smile and when the elevator doors opened he gently guided Sesha towards their apartment. "Come on. I'll make you some tea. You'll feel alot better after you get something decent in you. Hospital food, even here, sucks."

Sesha felt somewhat sorry after he'd answered like that, feeling like he'd snapped at Domerin when that was the last thing on his mind right now. He knew Domerin only wanted to help take care of him and he was one of the few people he was willing to lean on with that sort of trust. But the other man was right, they'd gotten this far and he wasn't holding up as well as he'd thought he might even if it was just a little walk. It felt like there was something there, as he breathed, the way it might with a chest cold but he'd had no symptoms of that sort of thing and something coming on so quickly was foolish. Was he just being paranoid? He let Domerin help him down the hallway but by the time they reached their door his cough was deeper, getting at something further down. "I'd be very grateful for that."

If it was in Sesha's mind, then it was in Domerin's too. Beneath the smile, his thinly veiled anxiety ran rampant. Doctors could be wrong. He'd seen it before. What if they had missed something in their tests? What if they had gotten some kind of false result? What if this was only the beginning of something worse? Something Sesha hadn't experienced before? What if, what if, what if... he could conjure all manner of frightening scenarios into his mind. But he quickly pushed them all to the back of his mind and locked them away with a key. The last thing Sesha needed was for him to start panicking right now. Besides, he had a tendency to be over protective of his mate. He had to at least wait until he could prove the doctors had missed something before he marched them both back down there made Sesha feel worse while making a fool of himself for no reason. He told himself Sesha would feel better once he had a proper comfortable place to relax, a few cups of his favorite herbal tea, and had read a few chapters of an interesting book.

So while there were a thousand things he wanted to say, Domerin forced himself to say only, "Think nothing of it." And then fussed over getting Sesha settled into a comfortable place of his choosing before hurrying into the kitchen to put on a kettle with some hot water to steep the proper herbs for the tea.

Sesha was well known for being rational and logical, sometimes a little to much, and he was a firm believer in the process of things. He knew his body well, and its limitations, and didn't generally get edgy over things but still something nagged at his mind. He let Domerin fuss without complaint, changed into something comfortable and then settled into a nest of blankets on the couch. Robin's door was still closed indicating she was probably still asleep. But even in the kitchen Domerin would be able to hear Sesha coughing, the sound getting progressively worse as the minutes passed. Eventually he would find Sesha hunched over a tissue held against his mouth, his breathing coming in short little gasps as he coughed, almost as if he'd swallowed water and it had gone down the wrong tube and he was getting his airway clear.

Domerin practically flinched every time he heard those coughs, though he did his best to hide it, or to make sure the reaction only came when he was out of Sesha's sight. It took real effort to keep from picking up the phone and calling the doctors to come right back up here. As time went on, it took even more effort to keep from pacing. Domerin felt helpless, and there was nothing he hated more than that feeling. There was nothing he could do. If this were a battle, he would leap into the fray and fight with everything that was in him. But the battle against illness was fought with drugs and treatments he understood nothing about. He wasn't a doctor. He felt like all he could do was stand by and watch and wait. But when Sesha finally haunched over, sounding as if he was coughing up a lung, Domerin could stand it no more. He was at the man's side in an instant, one arm around his shoulder. "You okay? Do you need me to call the doctors again?"

It was a short time before Sesha could even answer though eventually the coughing began to ease as it seemed he'd gotten whatever it was up and he took several moments to try and calm his breathing, though the feeling wasn't totally gone. He remained leaned over under Domerin's arm, finally lifting himself a bit and giving what might have been a slight shudder. "Domerin..." The name was quietly spoken but there was a tone the other man wouldn't have heard in Sesha's voice for a long time: fear. He opened his hand for Domerin to see, the middle of the tissue was dyed a deep red and when Sesha turned his head to look at Domerin there was similar red staining his lips. Sesha hardly needed to see it, he could taste it in his mouth. Sesha always tried to be strong in the face of his frailty but there was a naked fear in his eyes; nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Something was seriously wrong. "I don't think I'm okay."

Domerin held the other man while he coughed, his arms tightening around him while his feeling of helplessness grew. He felt as if a vast hole were opening up underneath him, a gaping maw threatening to engulf him. What could he do? There was nothing. He was a soldier. There was nothing here for him to fight, save his own growing fear that something was terribly wrong. His grip on the other man tightened ever so slightly when he heard his name spoken that way and for a moment he concentrated only on offering what small bit of comfort and reassurance he could to the other man. That, and doing his best not to shudder. It had been so long since he'd heard Sesha whisper his name like that... To whatever gods are listening... to whatever gods are real, please, please don't take him away from me...

He glanced down when the hand was held out and he couldn't stop the gasp that slid free of his lips. He turned his eyes up to Sesha's and for a moment even he didn't have the strength to hide the fear and concern that was written there. Domerin knew that his mate had faced medical conditions his whole life, he even knew some of what came along with them, but this... this was more than simple exhaustion. "Take deep breaths." He said after a moment, some manner of confidence coming back to him again. He gave Sesha's shoulder a light squeeze. At least there was something he could do now. "I'll get the doctors back up here. Just hold on a few minutes, okay?"

The look of fear in Domerin's face was almost more frighting than what he'd spied in his hand, though he'd already closed it into a fist so he didn't have to look and see what rested there. But Domerin was so very strong and the thought of the man being genuinely scared of something was a harrowing thought. He gave the ghost of a nod to Domerin's words, trying to breathe but afraid of what would happen if he took too deep of a breath. What was wrong with him?

Domerin may have been strong in the face of certain death - but that was only when it came to his own life. The thought of loosing Sesha... it drove him half crazy. He didn't know how he could survive without the other man. Domerin may have been a soldier, a warrior in every sense of the word, but he wasn't a solitary creature. He hadn't been, not really, since he'd met Kith Wentworth. It had nearly torn him apart when he had lost his first love. What he shared with Sesha was so much stronger, so much deeper, that he didn't even know if he could survive the breaking of that bond. And there was Robin to think about now. What would he do without Sesha there to guide him? What would she do if she lost him? But even in the face of a situation that felt hopeless, Domerin had learned to master his own fear. If something, even something he couldn't see, was going to try to take Sesha from him, it wasn't going to get him without a fight. He didn't need to say more than 'coughing up blood' to make the doctors come running again, and from there it was simply the act of containing his own anxieties once more. Holding his breath, gritting his teeth, and going through the motions with the doctors again, just like he had the night before.

And Sesha had been whisked away again, though this time it was unlikely he'd be released any time soon. There would be even more tests to run now, and more invasive ones depending on the outcomes. But no matter what the doctors said he wasn't willing to be without Domerin for any long period of time. He needed the support even when he'd done his best to put his brave face back on. But he, like everyone else could do nothing at the moment but wait.

It was getting on in the afternoon, the point by which most people who'd been staring mostly at white walls for hours started to get testy. Sesha had been holding up well enough among all the blood drawings, other samples taken, and myriad tests they'd run on him during the day though it had been wearing him down. He hadn't had another episode like the first but he'd complained of feeling weak and was currently resting in one of the rooms.

Unfortunately the doctor who'd draw Domerin out of the room to speak with him didn't have particularly good news, and at it's most basic it boiled down to, "We just don't know what it is."

Domerin's patience was dangerously thin. It was true that he, and people like him, were often accused of using 'shoot it' as their ultimate solution to everything and Domerin had long since reached the point where he would have given in to that stereotype if only it would have done Sesha any good. But, of course, in this situation there was nothing for him to shoot, and he just had to be patient and wait for the doctors to find the solution. Now that they were handling it, however, he had done an admirable job of containing his own fears and anxieties and it hadn't been very hard to put his energy into keeping Sesha's spirits up, reassuring him that the doctors would have everything figured out for him very soon, that the tests would all be over soon and he'd be resting easy again. While Sesha needed his strength he was a veritable well of it, but as soon as Sesha was asleep and he didn't have anything else to focus on, his frazzled nerves began to show through. He tapped his foot while he waited for the doctor to spit it all out. He crossed his arms across his chest, then uncrossed them, then crossed them again.

Unfortunately for the doctor, his answer wasn't the one Domerin wanted to hear. He could be rather frightening when he was angry, and at the moment he didn't much care for keeping his own temper in check any more. He pursed his lips and after a single moment the wall holding back his temper finally crumbled, revealing all the anger and annoyance that had built up throughout the day. "What the hell do you mean you don't know what the problem is?! You've taken enough blood from the man that you could fill a bath tub with it and bathe in it and you still don't fucking know what's wrong? Obviously it's not nothing! People don't just cough up blood when they're perfectly fine!"

The man facing Domerin's wrath wasn't some new doctor fresh out of school, he'd been doing this for some time but even someone like him, used to dealing with the military withered slightly under the mans tirade. It wasn't as if they weren't trying most everything but so far the results had been baffling in that they'd all come out normal. "Of course they don't sir. But nothing in his blood work has come up as abnormal. We're still waiting for results from the deep scans but we've run the tests multiple times with the same results."

Domerin made a sound, it wasn't quite a snort but it was very close. There was a soft catch of breath in his throat and he laid his head in one hand and shook it slowly, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. He'd come up against alot of things he thought ridiculous in his life time; military missions that people wanted to undertake which with foolish objectives, too little intelligence, plans with no sound tactics that were doomed to fail, he'd even seen a few situations where doctors had promised someone they'd never walk again, or only had two months left to live and had turned out to be horribly wrong. But this topped them all. How the hell could someone be getting sicker and sicker while the doctors insisted they couldn't find a damn thing wrong with them? "This is bullshit. Pure and utter bullshit." He announced as he raised his head again, that fierce glare returning to his face as his eyes bored holes in the doctor's head. "I've dealt with alot of bullshit in my life doctor, but you're expecting me to accept that doctors - the best god damned doctors in this god forsaken country, the best at what you people do, can't find anything wrong with someone who is obviously sick. What the hell do you expect me to do, doctor?" And this time he practically spat the man's title as if it were an insult. "You can't possibly be suggesting we stand here and do nothing!"

The man was trying to be calm about this but it was hard when being insulted as if they weren't even trying. But for the moment he kept his temper. "Of course we're not suggesting doing nothing. As I said something may come back in the deep scans and we should be getting those soon. We're working on diagnosis but with the symptoms sporadic as they are... well we're keeping Mr. Liatos under close observation. Sometimes it takes a little time to pin down what's wrong. This could be something exotic, Mr. Liatos does travel and we're not ruling that out yet."

If Domerin had been even remotely rational at that point he would have realized that he was blaming someone who had no control over the situation for something that wasn't his fault. He would have realized that he was being rude. He may even have felt sorry about being such a huge dick.. but at the moment he didn't care. Nothing mattered any more. It was like this man was standing there asking him to watch Sesha die without even trying to do anything about it. Luckily, at that point, Domerin lost the capacity to say anything remotely coherent and fell into a string of curses, most of which weren't even in English. Finally he took a deep breath and turned back to the doctor, apparently recalling that they were in the middle of a conversation, and in a tone that was only slightly more composed, said through clenched teeth, "I'm well aware of the fact that Mr. Liatos travels, doctor, I usually travel with him. If this was something he had picked up on one of those trips, shouldn't I be suffering from the same symptoms?"

It was lucky for them there weren't any other patients in the same vicinity or Domerin would probably have been escorted somewhere he could befoul the air in peace. As it was he was getting some looks from other staff passing by though no one said anything for the moment, it wasn't like it was the first time Domerin had been in the infirmary here and most of them knew who he was. "It's possible but Mr. Liatos has a far more delicate constitution than you. It could well be possible that his immune system couldn't handle something that your's can." It was possible but unlikely, despite Sesha being frail he didn't pick up illnesses constantly.

Domerin sighed. He was skeptical of this explanation too. He had a natural distrust towards doctors. It wasn't that he thought they didn't know what they were doing, it was just that he didn't like being at their mercy when it came to keeping his body running. He would have preferred to leave such important matters in his own hands, but of course he was a soldier and that left him little time to learn the necessary skills, and besides he had no interest in being a doctor of any kind. So he had long ago learned that he had to put up with these kinds of people and the (what he considered to be) crap that flowed from their lips. But he was fairly sure by this point, this particular doctor was just saying whatever he thought would shut him up. Domerin finally sighed, as if he were about to give up all together but then said, in a far more level tone, "Fine. Then do a blood test on me. If this was something we were both exposed to, isn't it possible that I've got some kind of antibodies or something that might help him?" And even if he was just grasping for straws he hoped, for all their sakes, that the doctor would at least humor him. He'd get stuck with a needle and not even complain about it if there was the slightest possibility that it would help Sesha.

That might not have been far from the truth at this point but they honestly didn't know and it would be foolish not to entertain all the possibilities at this point, especially since it seemed that their patient was at least stable. The man gave a nod though. "That's a valid concern. We'll do that to see if we can find anything." He would direct Domerin to a nurse to get that done though, seeming to want to be away from the man.

Domerin finally relented, allowing himself to be lead to a room where the nurse could draw his blood. He was unusually subdued during the entire process, staring at the tiny syringe as it filled up and thinking that it somehow seemed an insignificant sacrifice considering the sheer amount of blood they'd drawn from Sesha's body over the past 24 hours. Of course he knew they took a relatively small amount and would never take so much as to put the man's life in danger, but it still made him feel he wasn't doing very much to help. He'd have given every drop of blood in his body if he'd known it would save the other man's life. He didn't say much throughout the whole process, doing little more than grunting and then excusing himself as soon as the nurse was finished. He was about as ready to be rid of the infirmary, as it was to be rid of him.

When Greg Barrow answered the urgent knocking at his door, he would find his best friend standing in the hallway, looking haggard and worn. It was obvious that he hadn't slept very well the previous night and it looked as though he was about to start pacing up and down the hallway. The moment the door was open, Domerin brushed past his friend and inside the room, and the moment he perceived that he had some manner of privacy from the rest of the world, the tentative wall that held back his fear and anxiety crumbled and his face twisted into an expression rarely seen even by the likes of Major Greg Barrow. But the other Major would know what it meant, and likely how to deal with the mass of words that spilled from the other man's mouth before he even had a chance to say anything. "It's utter bullshit, Greg, I'm telling you. None of this makes any sense." He waved his arms as if to illustrate how little sense it made. "I've been down at that infirmary all damn day. How can doctors - DOCTORS - have no idea what's wrong with someone who's sick? They're fucking Doctors! Isn't that what they do?!"

Nothing much managed to surprise Gregory Barrow anymore, given the sheer breadth of strange things he'd seen over the course of his long career, but even some of the more innocuous occurrences - like his long time friend Major Lorcasf barging into his home and unleashing a lengthy, curse-filled tirade - could still bring him up short, even if he knew he should expect it by now. While the other Army officer stormed into his living room in his rage, Greg stood at the door for several seconds, blinking after his friend and chewing on the gnarled end of a toothpick. Finally, he pushed the door shut and exhaled a light sigh. "So, not much luck downstairs?"

Domerin almost seemed to deflate somehow at his friend's words, as if he had been holding something in for a very long time and finally felt free to release his burden. His head sank down into his hands and he shook it back and forth. "They let me take Sesha home this morning. But then he started coughing up blood. They've been doing tests all day and they swear they can't find anything wrong with him. But people just don't cough up blood when they're fine! I think the doctors are sick of me growling at them, but what the hell am I supposed to do Greg?" Domerin fell silent for the briefest of moments, his fingers embedding themselves in his unruly midnight locks and for a moment he looked nothing like a soldier, nothing like the strong, hard as nails man that he was known to be, and when he spoke again it sounded like he was very close to breaking down. "I can't loose him, Greg. I just can't."

Major Barrow grunted in response, a generic answer to Domerin's desperate ranting that the other man had probably come to expect by now. He stood by the door for a lengthy moment, thoughtfully chewing on the toothpick between his lips, now pressed into a grim line. At length, he stepped into the apartment's living room and waved his friend to a seat on the couch while he lowered himself into his chair. "Calm down, Lorcasf. I'm sure the doctors aren't saying nothing's wrong with Sesha. It's pretty obvious that something is. They just don't know what it is yet." Greg wasn't exactly the most sympathetic shoulder to cry on, and he certainly wasn't giving off waves of empathy at the moment. He'd seen his old friend in states like this before, though, and from his experience he knew that Domerin needed a strong pillar to hold him up right now, more than a pillow to cry into. "You know that the physicians here are some of the best in the world. You also know that things like this can happen unexpectedly. How many times have we seen this happen to other ascendants?"

It was a testament to the state he was in that Domerin hadn't even bothered to find out if anyone else was home before he had fallen into his tirade. He didn't like for anyone, present company excluded, to see him in this state, but he was too far lost in his own terror at the idea of loosing is mate to be as careful as he usually was with containing his own emotions. What he needed was something he could do. Someone he could talk to that he couldn't intimidate or yell at simply because he knew it would knock them off their balance. What he needed was to regain his senses. And there was no one in the world who knew how to help him do that better than Greg Barrow... except maybe Sesha, but he certainly couldn't bear that burden at the moment. At least the calm, unsympathetic tone of the other Major's voice seemed to bring him back from whatever chaos he had descended into and make him start to think rationally again. "Damn it, Greg, that's what scares me so much. If the best doctors in the world can't even figure out what to do for him, what are the chances he's going to make it through this?" He shook his head again. "But this isn't like those other times. This isn't a result of his ascendancy. Yeah, he gets sick alot. His body can be frail, that is a result of his ascendancy, it's the way he was born. But this isn't like that. It's different. And what bothers me the most is that I think he knows it. He knows that something bad is going on and it scares him and the fact that no one can tell either of us a damn thing scares the shit out of me."

With another quiet sigh, Greg leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together as he grasped the other man in his steely gaze. "Dom, I understand how you feel. Believe me, I've been there before. But you have to trust the medical staff here to do their jobs. They'll find out what's wrong with him, and they'll find a way to fix it. They just need a little more time."

"Or maybe they just need to look at things from a different perspective." The soft sound of Gregory Barrow's daughter's voice rang out from the edge of the hallway, and in a moment she was leaning against the back of the couch, her arms folded in front of her chest, her strawberry blonde locks falling gently forward to frame her young cheeks. It was obvious she had been listening in on the whole conversation.

So hard was it for someone to actually manage to sneak up on Domerin Lorcasf, and so rarely did it happen that the dark skinned major practically fell out of his seat on the couch when the soft sound of Selene's voice interrupted their conversation and the look he cast over his shoulder when she joined them in the living room was one of embarrassment; he hadn't meant for her to see him acting like this.

But Selene's expression was far more sympathetic than her father's had been and she hurried to add, "I'm sorry. I know it's none of my business and I shouldn't have been listening. But if the doctors are having trouble finding out what's wrong with Sehsa, maybe you should consider using less conventional means. I mean the medical staff isn't the only thing at this facility that's state of the art."

Greg noticed Domerin's expression upon hearing his daughter announce her presence, and his immediate reaction was to grin, half out of mischievous amusement and half out of fatherly pride. "She's gotten good at moving around unnoticed since she started living with me," he explained, as if in answer to Domerin's unspoken question. "Pretty soon, no one in the old team is going to be a match for her sneaking skills." The moment of parental boasting passed by quickly, and by his next breath, he'd turned his attention to Selene. "You sound like you've got something in mind already."

Domerin arched an eyebrow in his friend's direction. It wasn't really her sneaking skills that concerned him at the moment, but it did explain alot. At a loss for words at the moment, however, Domerin silently turned in Selene's direction, uncertain how she could possibly help but desperate to accept anything that anyone could offer. At least he trusted her alot more than he did the doctors down in the infirmary...

Selene couldn't help but smile ever so slightly, not because of her father's praise, but because she did have something in mind already. "Of course I do. There are alot more people here at the institute who are qualified to help in a situation like this than just the doctors. Take me for instance - I may not be an MD, but I'm a biologist, and I have at least as good an understanding of the human body as they do. Perhaps more in some ways, because I focus on a different part of the field than they do. Likely all the doctors are doing is running certain tests on the blood they've taken. Those tests look for certain things, if the outcome of those things are negative, they don't look for anything other than other specific anomalies. Considering that we're in an institute which specializes in analyzing the blood and DNA of ascendants in an attempt to identify what brings their abilities into being, you're in the perfect place for a situation like that. Why don't you just ask Dr. Waters to assign one of the researchers to take a look into the situation. Either one of you have the authority, and I would be more than happy to do it. You could even request me. I doubt she'd tell either one of you no."

Greg chomped down on the mangled end of his toothpick in thought for a moment, his eyes becoming distant and narrow as he contemplated his daughter's suggestion. She did have a point - although all doctors, by nature of their education, were well-versed in biology in their own right, medical procedures in a situation like this did focus on a certain set of tests and practices - and excluded others that this institute, at least, was equipped to look into. Finally, Greg looked up again and nodded. "We'll corner Waters about it first thing tomorrow morning and get her to put her best researcher on the case."

Domerin wasn't very good when it came to science. It seemed to him that, if there was some other way to diagnose a problem of this kind, the doctors who were handling the situation should have thought of that themselves and sought it out. But he trusted in what Selene was saying, and it seemed the only option he had that would offer him some hope that this whole situation wasn't entirely hopeless. He was more than willing to grasp onto it if there was the slightest possibility that it would offer a solution. "Thank you, Selene. I really do appreciate it."

For her part, Selene only shrugged her shoulders as if she hadn't done anything at all. "Don't mention it. But I can't promise you anyone else would be able to find anything either. But if the doctors are all stumped it's worth a try, right?"

"At this point, I think anything short of leeches and bloodletting are worth a try," Major Barrow grunted in a low tone, and pushed himself out of his chair. "In the meantime, there's nothing anyone can do about it right now, so there's no use worrying yourself crazy over it. Best thing for you and Sesha right now is for you to calm down. A hard drink ought to take a bit of the edge off. Going to join us, Selene?"

The offer of a good stiff drink seemed to be enough to settle Domerin's nerves, at least for the moment. Sesha, after all, would have just tried to shoo him off to bed, but there was no way Domerin was going to be able to sleep. A stiff drink might just help solve that problem too. So it was that he lifted himself off of the couch with a nod and a slightly resigned look, but he seemed a great deal calmer already than he had been when he came in.

Selene, however, only blinked in surprise and shook her head. "I'm under age Daddy, you should know that." Besides, having a 'stiff drink' with her father and her father's best friend crossed over into a territory of 'weird' that she preferred to keep a safe distance from. So she pushed herself away from the couch and headed back down the hallway to her room. "But you two enjoy yourselves."